Big Bear or birdfoot checkerbloom is a few-stemmed, ascending to erect, glabrous to hirsute perennial to 16" tall.  The leaves are mostly basal, 5-7-parted, those divisions ternately cleft into linear to elliptic segments.  Numerous flowers crowd along an elongated spike-like raceme.  The calyx is about 1/4" long with fine stellate hairs.  The rose-purple, dark-veined petals are about 1/2" long.  Big Bear checkerbloom is rare and endangered in California, growing in moist meadows in montane coniferous forest from 5000' to 7500', specifically the San Bernardino Mts, and even more specifically known only from five or six occurrences in Bear Valley, Bluff Lake and the Upper Holcombe Valley, which is where these pictures were taken.  It blooms from May to July.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Sidalcea 2) pedata.
Pronunciation: si-DAL-see-a pe-DAY-ta.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.